This invention relates to the diagnostic use of labeled fatty acids and to the treatment of diabetes.
Attempts have been made to monitor heart disease by injecting into a patient a radioactive fatty acid which is taken up by the heart, and then detecting the labeled fatty acid; e.g., by carrying out positron or photon tomography to produce images of the patient's heart. Such procedures are described in, e.g., Stocklin U.S. Pat. No. 4,290,965 and Knust et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,323,547.
Inhibitors of free fatty acid oxidation have been found to produce hypoglycemia in animals, as described in, e.g., Stewart et al. (1969) "Oral Hypoglycemic Agents," Campbell, Ed., Academic Press, New York, pg. 347; Tutwiler (1973) Experientia 29: 1340; and Tutwiler et al. (1981) Methods Enzymol. 72: 533.